


The Power Rangers (Multicrossover Style)

by The_Fourth_Catalyst



Category: Coraline (2009), Frankenweenie (2012), Kubo and the Two Strings (2016), Le Petit Prince | The Little Prince (2015), ParaNorman (2012), Power Rangers (2017), The Boxtrolls (2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Power Rangers Fusion, Each kid live in the same neighborhood as each other, F/M, Human!boxtrolls, Laika crossover, POWER RANGERS AU, The characters from The Little Prince movie have names, similar to the 2017 film but not much
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-26
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2018-12-20 06:29:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Underage
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11915127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Fourth_Catalyst/pseuds/The_Fourth_Catalyst
Summary: Six troubled, misfit children have had struggles in their lives for a while now. Norman is an outcast because of his ability to see ghosts, Coraline's parents won't listen to her and she's constantly pestered by the cliques at her school, Mary Langdon's constantly-busy mother is hellbent into making her daughter into a carbon copy of herself by scheduling her to days of endless studies, Eggs's father is battling his Alzheimer's, Kubo's parents are close to getting a divorce and Victor's dog recently died after being run over. But one day, all their lives change forever. After discovering a group of crystal coins near a gold mine, they are each chosen to become intergalactic warriors called the Power Rangers.





	1. Millions of Years Ago

**200,000 B.C.**  
**Cenozoic Era**

Since the dawn of time and man itself, a group of interplanetary warriors protected all life on the planet Earth. These warriors were known as the Power Rangers. Their main purpose is to protect the Zeo Crystal, an enormous artifact that holds the most powerful energy imaginable. In the wrong hands, it could destroy everything. Led by the diligent Zordon, the first original Red Ranger and leader of the Rangers, they worked together to fight evil forces who sought after the Zeo Crystal and use it's power to rule over all and never be stopped. However, one particular Green Ranger, Rita Repulsa, had become corrupted by power and her own ego that she betrayed her team and created her own army to kill them all. Manipulating the earth's elements, she built rock monsters called "Putties" with the help of her golden staff. It was a fierce battle between the Rangers and Rita's army, but Rangers were unsuccessful. Rita even created a giant monster made entirely out of gold, whom she named "Goldarr". Horrified by the massacre of his fallen comrades and the now-scorched earth he was currently in, the mortally-wounded Zordon crawled over to the Yellow Ranger and took hold of her Power Coin, which was the source of the Rangers' power. Once the coin was removed, her suit disappeared.

 _"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I have failed you."_ He spoke in his native tongue. _"But I will not fail again."_

He looked down at the rest of the Ranger's coins. Now all that's left was his own. Upon removing his Power Coin, his Red Ranger suit was gone with a flash.

 _"I wouldn't get your hopes up if I were you, old friend."_ Zordon looked up see his former comrade-turned-arch nemesis, Rita Repulsa standing there in all her glory, clutching her golden staff with a hand to her hip and she gazed down at her fallen enemy smugly.

 _"This is far from over, Rita."_ Zordon gasped, feeling his life draining away little by little. _"One day, more warriors will come and will-"_

 _"And what?"_ interrupted Rita. _"You never had the chance to beat me. I'm stronger than you and your Rangers ever were."_

 _"We'll see about that."_ regarded Zordon.

Rita chuckled darkly, mocking the dying Ranger before her. _"We most certainly will. Let this once proud Earth landscape be your burial ground!"_

She turned away to leave him to die, not before she turned to face him one last time. _"We could've ruled the entire universe together, Zordon."_

 _"That shall never happen."_ Zordon hissed.

_"As you wish."_

She raised her staff as the rest of her Putties were nearing the location of the Zeo Crystal; her valiant victory just inches away as the power over everyone and everything will soon be in her grasp. Zordon knew he had to act fast. With no other alternative, there was only one thing to do. It was risky, but since he was closer upon death's door, Zordon knew it was the only way to prevent Rita from getting her hands on that Crystal. He grabbed his communicator and spoke into it as best he could.

_"Alpha, send the meteor to my coordinates! We must stop her! And seek only those who are worthy!"_

He buried the Power Coins into the dirt as he heard the sound of explosions calling from the heavens. He knew what is was. As the meteor neared the earth for it's collision, Zordon reflected on the times he and his fellow Rangers fought, the moment he himself had been chosen to become the Red Ranger, to lead those into battle to protect the Zeo Crystal. Once the meteor finally struck Earth, in a blinding light, Zordon and the Dinosaurs to blasted into extinction. Rita on the other hand was blasted off into the ocean and forced into the ocean floor where she remained buried for generations to come. As long as the Zeo Crystal was protected from sinister forces, including Rita, all life on Earth would remain safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there you have it. The first chapter. I do thank your patience and I will see you in the next chapter.


	2. Meet the Kids

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Six troubled, misfit children have had struggles in their lives for a while now. Norman is an outcast because of his ability to see ghosts, Coraline's parents won't listen to her and she's constantly pestered by the cliques at her school, Mary Langdon's constantly-busy mother is hellbent into making her daughter into a carbon copy of herself by scheduling her to days of endless studies, Eggs's father is battling his Alzheimer's, Kubo's parents are close to getting a divorce and Victor's dog recently died after being run over. But one day, all their lives change forever. After discovering a group of crystal coins near a gold mine, they are each chosen to become intergalactic warriors called the Power Rangers.

**2017, Present Day**  
**Angel Grove, California**

Norman Babcock awoke to the sound of zombie moans. He groaned as it pressed snooze on his special alarm clock designed like a grave with a zombie arm sticking out of the ground. It was 8:00 AM, meaning it was time to get up and ready for school. And was just that. Another typical, boring day at school. He yawned and stretched, getting up and out of bed in his pajamas and sauntered past the zombie and other horror-themed posters on his bedroom walls. In fact, everything in his room was based on the living dead, which mirrors the special little gift this boy has. He is able to see dead people...and also talk to them. Which pretty much sums up the fact the everyone in town, not just the kids at school, give him odd stares every time he walks by speaking to his "friends". His parents are sometimes weirded out by this sort of behavior. His mother isn't very fazed as he gets it from her side of the family, but his father thinks otherwise. It's just hard for Norman to have a decent relationship with his father when he always talking his dead grandmother. Watching graphic horror movies and playing with zombie action figures. It's strange to most people, even his older "classier" sister, Courtney, who is what some would call a phone-addict. But come to think of it, who isn't? After brushing his teeth and at least trying to comb his seemingly thick spiked-up hair, his cell-phone sitting on his nightstand rang. Norman picked it up and it said "J., Coraline".

He opened it up and pressed it to his ear. "Hello?"

 _"Are you awake yet?"_ The aforementioned girl's voice asked on the other line.

"Yeah, I just got up seconds ago. Are you at the bus stop already?" asked Norman while trying to find some clothes to wear.

_"Of course I am."_

"Well, let me get dressed and I'll be right over." Norman reminded her.

 _"Okay, but hurry up. You don't want to miss the bus again like last time."_ Coraline warned him.

"Yeah, yeah. Bye." Norman rolled his eyes and hung up.

He put on his usual red hoodie and head downstairs where the rest of his family were. There was his mother, Sandra, at the stove cooking, just doing her thing while his father, Perry, was standing on a step ladder, trying to replace the burnt-out light bulb with a new one. Courtney, on the other hand, was just testing away on her phone as usual and blowing bubblegum, just minding her own business. It's better then when she's shooting a breeze with one of her friends on her phone, talking random cliché teenage girl stuff.

"Morning, sweetheart." Sandra smiled when she saw her son.

"Morning, mom. Sorry, but I should get going." Norman greeted back as he put his backpack on and headed for the front door.

"Have an okay day, Norman! See you this afternoon!" His mother called as he departed.

"Okay." He said back in a mutter when he saw the ghost of his grandmother sitting in her usual spot on the couch in the family room. "Bye, grandma."

"See ya later." She said back with a smile.

Perry heard it loud and clear from the kitchen and groaned. How he wished his son would stop his "talking to dead people" thing. It's just not natural, he thought. Anyway, Norman walked down the street to meet up with his friend at the bus stop like he did every morning before school. Along the way, he saw many ghosts floating around. There were many just floating around in the afterlife which Norman could see into. There was this hippie ghost who died from an allergy attack, a Civil War soldier who died in battle, a gangster whose feet were cemented and was drowned and there's the parachutist who died when her parachute failed to eject on time before that rough landing. He smiled at all his ghost friends. He noticed a dead raccoon roadkill floating near his corpse.

"Hey there, little guy." Norman gushed as he "petted" the ghost raccoon. But then he felt eyes on him and he froze when he saw a girl standing across the street staring right at him. It was one of Norman's schoolmates who had short black hair in a white hairband and wearing formal school wear and black Mary Jane's. The girl looked at Norman with a confused glance as she felt somewhat creeped out by the boy's antics. Norman just resumed his walk to the bus stop to avoid any embarrassment, pretending that awkward moment didn't happen while the girl just eyeballed him as he walked away down the sidewalk and disappeared down the block.

Meanwhile, the blue-haired girl stood by the bus stop as she waited for her friend to show up before the bus did. Coraline Jones was just your ordinary girl; a wild imagination, a need to explore, but she didn't have very fun parents. Her parents were always busy, typing away on their computers, writing articles for the newspaper and everything while she just sits by in complete boredom. They seldom pay little to no attention to her, barely having any time for her. Sure, her father was gracious enough was send you a simple "hello", "goodbye" or "how are you" once in a while, but other than that, it's just a rare occurrence for them to even speak to her as they work. But if you though her life at home was the worst part, you are dead wrong. At school, she has to face Victoria "Tori" De'Milo, the so-called queen of the school's social underworld. The diva of all divas. The girl who's always belittling Coraline's lack of fashion sense and likes to make every aspect of her life at school about her. They used to be friends, until an unfaithful moment drove them apart. One thing for sure, Tori joined a clique during the 9th grade and all that glamor, fashion and attention got to her head. It's never been the same between them. She befriended Norman after they moved in next door to his family. But it wasn't just her and her family that moved in, but also the other residents of the Pink Palace Apt., Mr. Bobinsky and Ms. Spink and Forcible. After the last place they lived in had to be shut down due to a severely low budget, they all moved in together all under one roof. Bobinsky took the attic since he didn't mind the spiderwebs and dust, while the two former stage actresses took the basement. It was a lot to pay for that many people living in the same house. Coraline broke from her thoughts when Norman finally joined her.

"There you are." Coraline scolded softly.

"Sorry, but I'm not an early bird like you." Norman shrugged his shoulders.

"Figures." sighed Coraline. 

"So how's it been going with your....."roommates"?" asked Norman, adding air quote to that last word, which made Coraline frown.

"Well, how do you want me to put it?" Coraline asked snappily.

"Not good, huh?" Norman winced.

"If "not good", you mean "annoying", then yes." She nodded. "We took Spink and Forcible out to a late movie last night just to help them out with a little culture. Beauty and the Beast, I think it was. I just hate those Disney movies." 

"Beauty and the Beast? You mean that remake with Dan Stevens?" asked Norman.

"Obviously." Coraline rolled her eyes. "I can’t stand those musicals. All the singing and dancing and the romance. Guess I'm just not a theatre type of person."

"What does a movie like Beauty and the Beast have anything to do with culture?" Norman asked.

"I honestly have no clue." Coraline shook her head and rubbed her eyes from the stress, trying to calm her nerves. "Anyway, how've you been?"

"Same old, same old." Was all that Norman could come up with, since he really had nothing else to say. That's when the school bus pulled up and stopped before them. The two stepped on when the sliding door opened for them. All the other kids were just nosy as always. Something the two can't stand, but they were used to it. Coraline just sat by herself in one seat and just stared out the window while Norman shared a seat with his other friend, Neil. They arrived at the school not too far from the neighborhood and all the students stepped off the bus and joined the rest of the kids outside the building as they just relaxed and conversed while they waited for class to start. As soon as Norman stepped off the bus with Coraline last, everyone all silenced to stare at Norman.

"Hey, look! It's Ab-Norman!" One kid shouted and everyone giggled after he said that. Norman sighed and just watched his feet as he walked.

"Don't listen to them, Norman. They just don't know any better." Coraline put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

You don't believe Norman's day could get any worse? Try that graffiti left on his locker by those jerks that read "Freak" in black marker. He sighed and pulled out a spray cleanser and wipe from his locker to wipe away the defacement. Just a few feet from him, Neil was also cleaning away a painted-on insult from his own locker. Norman was unexpectedly approached by a group of bullies, led by Alvin.

"Hey, hey, ghost jerk. You know what?" Alvin mocked sadistically.

Norman sighed and responded, "What do you want, Alvin?"

"Why don't you go see some more ghosts, goober?" He taunted as his friends laughing in regards to that jab. Norman only groaned and rolled his eyes. Alvin then came up with a better one.

"Oh, oh, oh. Hey, Norman." Alvin began when he saw a fly land on Norman's locker and with a single smack of his hand, he swatted the fly right where it stood, leaving a smeared mark of fly blood and guts on the locker door. "Talk to that."

Alvin laughed along with his buddies at his little accomplishment.

"Oh, yeah, that's so Alvin! Right?" He crowed with pride and humor. Then they walked past him with Alvin shoving him aside as they did, leaving Norman somewhat humiliated, or so they thought. Norman can take an rough shove, a spit in the face, an insult or two. He was used to this kind of thing. He never cries or gets angry, just let's them go along their merry way and pretends it never happened.

"Flies don't talk." said Norman to no one in particular.

* * *

Coraline had just finished putting her backpack in her locker and shut the door when she heard the faint whisper of a conversation nearby. She looked and witnessed Tori and her group of friends (or followers as she calls them) talking about Coraline in hushed voices so that she wouldn't hear her, even though they were so close to her that she actually could. Coraline glared at them and turned away to use the restroom. Then Tori and her clique suddenly followed her to rub it in her face for the umpteenth time. Coraline entered the bathroom to wash her hands when her worst enemies appear behind her.

"Hello, again, _Caroline_." Coraline lifted her head up with a gasp to see their reflection in the mirror and reluctantly turned to face them.

"For the last time, Tori, it's Cor-aline." She corrected in annoyance.

"Whatevs, Debby." Tori brushed off nonchalantly, while her so-called followers giggled at their leader's joke. Coraline growled under her breath and just wanted to strangle the life out of the girl who broke their friendship over popularity more than anything, but it took all her willpower to think against it.

"So this is where you hang out everyday instead of practice? Yikes." Tori joked snidely.

"You just never know when to let things go, can you, Tori?" asked Coraline rhetorically, shaking her head.

"Where's the fun in that? Besides, it's not my fault that boy couldn't stand the sight of you." 

"He called me names, alright?!" Coraline shouted with fury and irritation. "Why don't you just move past it already like everybody else?!"

"Let me think about that." said Tori, putting a finger to her chin in a mock thinking gesture, unfazed by her former friend's anger. "One: I'm not "everybody else". Two: You're an unbearable little freak with zero sense of humor, zero taste in fashion and zero thoughts about changing your look, because it's way out of date and too geeky. And three: I fucking hate you. So there."

They all howled with laughter, but Coraline was between feelings of blind fury and hurt, unsure of how to feel. One of Tori's friends pull out a photo of Coraline and Tori when they were still friends. There was a red 'X' crossed over Coraline's face, signaling Tori's distaste for her. Tori was handed the photo and a pair of scissors.

"I'm cutting you out of my life. Literally." Tori jabbed, using the scissors to cut the photo in half, splitting the two of them up. Tori held the half that had her in it while letting Coraline's half drop to the floor. Then she stabbed the wall with the scissors, leaving them in it before giving Coraline one last insult.

"So go kill yourself."

With their work done, Tori and her gang left the bathroom, leaving Coraline all alone to sulk. After they left, all of her pend-up rage soon reached the surface and she couldn't resist shouting in anger, punching the walls, not caring if it hurt and when she finally calmed down, tears threatened to leak from her face and she sniffled. Looking at her reflection, she saw the tears leaking down her cheeks and with that, she retreated into a stall to be alone and cry her eyes out, feeling utterly destroyed and violated. Of course, she's had encounters with Tori like this everyday, but this one really struck her badly.

* * *

Once in the classroom, Norman found his assigned seat. Class hasn't yet started, so there was still time to kill. Norman noticed a boy in a seat a couple rows behind him who was sketching with colored pencils and had them lined up in a perfectly straight position. The boy had unkempt hair and had some dirt on his face. He was constantly switching pencils, putting them in spot after spot, mentally deciding which color should go with the next. Then Alvin walked past the boy from behind and just gave him a rough push on the back, making the boy knock his pencils off his desk.

"Hey, I was just aligning those!" The boy complained at him.

"Oh, you were? I'm sorry, I didn't notice." Alvin said in a mock apologetic tone before picking up one of his pencils and held it front of his face, looking ready to break it in half. The boy panicked and begged him to not go any further.

"Stop! Don't do that! That's my personal keep!" 

"Oh, really? It be a shame if you lost an-"

Norman finally stood up and stopped Alvin from doing something that he'll may or may not regret.

"That's enough, Alvin! Go sit down!" ordered Norman with an authoritative tone, not willing to see another kid get picked on.

"Oh, oh, oh! Is the wimp gonna have the ghost boy fight his battles? Oooh, I'm so sca-a-aared!" shuddered Alvin mockingly, while holding his arms around himself and shook from fake fright, before laughing.

"How old are you? Huh? Are you, like, eight? Nine? Act your age." Norman demanded, not backing down any sooner.

"Well, why don't you do something about it? Oh, hey! Better yet, why don't you have all your "friends" come beat my ass?" The big bully refused to take a hint.

That's when Norman was fed up with the monkey faced idiot poking fun at him and gave him a slap on the face. Everyone stopped to look at the situation going on. Alvin broke with shook and disbelief, surprised at what he just did. Norman awaited a reaction. Alvin just narrowed his eyes at him and at the boy before heading for his desk with angry eyes boring into Norman's back as a universal signal that said "I'll get you for that later, geek". The boy looked at Norman with equal surprise and he smiled at him and returned to his eyes. Meanwhile, standing at the doorway, a young Japanese-American boy was watching the whole time and was surprised to see Norman actually stand up to a bully. Although, he continued his way over to class and made just before the bell rang. Morikawa Kubo was a boy whose family moved here to Angel Grove from their hometown of Yurihonjō, Akita Prefecture, Japan. The spark between his parents was gone and they now starting to see each other as enemies or rivals instead of lovers. They would have an argument over something Kubo didn't care about every so often. Kubo would just sit in his room, hearing his mom and dad fight over a random subject while he just sat there and listened with worry and sadness, hearing his parent's relationship crumble. He was afraid that someday that they would get a divorce and he would had to live with only one of them. He didn't want that. All he wants if for the two to just get along and love each other again.

* * *

School was over and Norman walked out to see Coraline being picked up by her parents. She was wiping her face of dried tears and hopping in the car. Norman could clearly see through the windshield that her father, Charlie, was smiled at his daughter while her mother, Mel, was just paying more attention to her phone. Typical, Norman thought as he shook his head. He walked down the steps and just stared at the ground as he left the school when the same boy from before caught up with him.

"Hey!" He called, making Norman turn around to look at him.

"Hi." Norman greeted.

"I just wanted to say that that amazing what you did back there." The boy said. "And thanks, by the way."

"Yeah, you're welcome. I don't like people like that." replied Norman. "Alvin's kind of a jerk, you know?"

"Hey, we should probably hang out some time." The boy persisted. "I know this place we could go to tonight."

"Tonight?" asked Norman.

"Oh, yeah. Just me and you." The boy nodded.

"What is your name?"

"I'm Jerome Llewelyn Ambrose Westingcraft Trubshaw." He offered his hand for a handshake, which Norman accepted. "You can call me "Eggs". Whichever's easiest. My dad and uncles do anyway. It was like a third-rate joke that we stuck with after one of my uncles teased me of shoving hard-boiled eggs up my butt. Which I didn't, for the record. But not only that, but my dad says that my mother would nickname me "Eggs", since I love to eat eggs. Fried eggs, scrambled eggs, over easy-"

"I'd love to hang out, but my parents don't like me going out after dark and coming home late. And my sister is always trying to be most responsible person in the house when she's really talking on the phone." Norman continued walking, but the boy followed him, still talking.

"No, wait! Don't leave just yet!" Eggs persisted again. "Look, I don't usually hang out with new people myself, but there's this thing that I need to do tonight and I could really use a hand, so-"

"Eggs, my dad already doesn't think I should be left alone at the house and I understand your situation, but I'm sorry." Norman explained. "Plus, I need to study for this quiz tomorrow."

"No, no, I get that. I really do." chirped Eggs. "I just want to do this one thing tonight and we can just sneak out while our parents are asleep or whatever."

"What is it that you need to do?" asked Norman.

"It's for a geology experiment that I've been working on." Eggs explained. "Rocks, minerals, things like that."

"I'll think about it, okay?" Norman finally decided.

"Great!" Eggs grinned and pulled out a small sheet of paper and handed it to Norman. "Here's my address so you know where I live."

"Okay, see you tonight, I guess." Norman sent him a slight smile and they both part ways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Each of the youths will be living in the same town of Angel Grove. I thought Coraline living with her neighbors back at the Pink Palace in the same house would be hilarious. The little girl Norman saw staring him at earlier is the same girl from the 2015 animated film adaptation of The Little Prince. I will introduce her and Victor in the next chapter. Until next time!


	3. Finding the Coins

Kubo arrived at his house on Gilmore Dr., entering through the front door to overhear his parents arguing for the umpteenth time in the kitchen. Giving a tired and depressed sigh, he didn't even bother shouting to them that he was home, because they either wouldn't hear him or they were just too caught up in their argument to even concentrate on him. So the boy just dragged himself up the stairs and into the solitude of his bedroom while the raised voices of his parents continued downstairs. He just threw his backpack onto the floor and flopped down on the bed. After the noise got to him, he pulled out his sketchbook from his backpack and flipped the pages, which consisted of drawings that had sketched to get his mind off his situation at home. Kubo landed on the page of a half-finished T-Rex. He didn't want to finish it here and his parents don't seem aware of what he does or even care for that matter.

He put the sketchbook back where he got it, threw the backpack over his shoulder and went back downstairs. He needed a nice, quiet place to be alone. The two adults halted their argument when they finally noticed their son heading for the back door, down in the dumps. Kubo's mother, Sariatu, came to him with worry.

"Kubo, honey. Where are you off to?" She asked, putting a hand on his shoulder just as he gripped the doorknob tightly.

"I just want to be alone. Someplace quiet to clear my head." He replied curtly.

"Oh........okay." answered Sariatu in a somewhat crushed and sad tone of voice.

Kubo was out the door in seconds, not looking back. He just wished his parents to stop their endless squabble and get along like they used to. He climbed up the fence and disappeared into the woods to find a place away from all the quarreling. But just a few blocks from his house, Norman was looking outside his bedroom window, contemplating whether to help out Eggs or not. His parents would not be happy if they found out he was out late doing God knows what. Most especially his dad. Talking to spirits that he couldn't see was one thing, but sneaking out to join a friend without his knowledge or permission was another. But he decided that he was leave the house for a few minutes, give Eggs a little assistance, then leave back home before they noticed anything. 

He picked up his phone to call Coraline. There was only dial tone for a few seconds before she finally picked up. He could hear her sniffling before answering in a soft voice, _"Hello?"_

"Hey, it's me. Listen, I have a small favor to ask." 

 _"And that is?"_ asked Coraline with a sniffle.

"There's this kid at school named Eggs who wants me to help him with an experiment of his tonight and I'd like you to come with." Norman responded to her while keeping a hand over his mouth so that neither his parents nor his sister could hear.

 _"Tonight? Does it have to be tonight?"_ She whined slightly.

"Yeah, I know. But I'd hate to have this kid do it all by himself if it's really important to him. We'll just sneak out and be back as soon as he's done. Hopefully." 

_"Hopefully? It's a school night, Norman. Besides, I'm not feeling in the mood right now."_

"Why? What's wrong?" asked Norman with worry.

_"I don't wanna talk about it."_

Norman thought about this and gave a sympathetic gaze. Coraline sounded like she was crying for a while and is obviously upset about something.

"Look, I'm not gonna force you into this. I just want a little company and, by the way you sound, you could use a little company yourself. It'll be quick. I promise. We'll be back in time to get to bed." Norman explained, trying to help her understand that he needed her with him.

The other end of the phone was at least dead silent for a moment.

 _"Okay."_ Coraline finally said.

"Great. Meet me outside on the curb. Bye." Norman hung up the phone and grabbed his hoodie. He needed to be stealthy about this. So he gently opened the door and slowly tip-toed down the steps as quiet as he could. There was the sound of laughter and conversations downstairs. He looked to where the kitchen was and saw his parents and Coraline's parents sitting together at the table, talking together.

"Must be parents' night." Norman wondered in a soft whisper before the carefully opened the front door and slipped outside without making any noise. He sighed with relief and continued down the porch and toward the curb. There he saw Coraline standing there waiting for him as he requested.

"You're quicker than I thought." He remarked.

"Well, my parents aren’t even home." She explained matter-of-factly.

"It's parents' night." inquired Norman.

"Really? I could tell. Now where does this "Eggs" kid live anyway?" She asked, getting serious as to why they were outside.

"He gave me his address." Norman reached in his pocket and pulled out the piece of paper Eggs gave him. "3304 Edinburgh Str."

"Okay, we know that much." Coraline pulled out her phone to type it down on her maps app. "It's only two blocks from here."

The two friends journeyed down the sidewalk to reach the boy's house. Norman wanted to know what she was upset about, but the blue-haired girl didn't have the strength to provide him with any information. He decided to just leave it alone for a while and just let her tell him when she felt like it. The sun was just a millisecond close to setting when they arrived at Eggs's. It was a one-story house and surrounded by overgrown and uncut grass and large bushes. Not exactly pretty as a picture, but it was in the low income section of the town after all. The duo came up to the front door and rang the doorbell. The sound of the bell was answered back by the sounds of barking.

"I'll get it!" Norman heard the voice of Eggs shout from inside the house. The two jumped back as the door was opened just a crack to reveal two dogs trying to squeeze through to yap at the visitors in case they were up to no good. The dogs were a whippet and a Tibetan Mastiff.

"Get back, you two! Back!" Eggs commanded for the dogs to chill out, but when the door was opened, the two mongrels darted out and surrounded Norman and Coraline, making them uncomfortable being barked at.

"That's enough! Both of you shut up!" ordered Eggs in a loud, firm order. The mutts finally silenced their barking and sniffed the new visitors. "Hey, Norman! So you dropped in after all. Sorry about them. They don't usually warm up to strangers."

Eggs whistled and the dogs approached him. 

"This is Charles..." He petted the whippet's head. "...and Betty." Then to the Mastiff.

"Nice to meet you." Coraline gently petted Betty's smooth fur, before muttering to herself. "Kinda reminds me of Spink and Forcible's dogs."

"Who are you?" Eggs asked her.

"I'm Coraline Jones. I live next door to Norman." She greeted herself.

"Well, good to finally meet you. Come on in."

Eggs lead them inside to allow them to see that the interior of the house wasn't too out there either. There were a few bulging trash bags that never seemed to get thrown out. It was a regular mess and smelled of hobo. Eggs threw a ball down the hall for the dogs to fetch. But the duo found that they weren't the only pets of the house. There were three cats in the kitchen. Two were on the island while one was on the floor, eating from it's bowl. 

"Those are our cats. Bimble, Bashful and Peanut." Eggs replied. "My uncles really love cats."

"And how many uncles do you have?" asked Norman.

"I have seven, to be exact. Fish, Shoe, Sparky, Oil Can, Wheels, Bucket and Sweets. They all share one room together."

Coraline and Norman shared a nervous and confused look. This boy sure had a lot of family members with crazy names (or at least nicknames). Eggs brought them downstairs in the basement where his room was. There was a lot of junk around and some tiny contraptions that Eggs had been fiddling with on a workbench.

"What is all this stuff?" asked Coraline, picking up a cogwheel and examining it out of curiosity.

"This is just some items that I collected with my dad." Eggs explained while pulling a chest out from under his bed. He opened it up to reveal some equipment. Some that a young boy shouldn't be using until he's older.

"Here's what I'll be using." He told them.

"I'm sorry, but what is it that we're doing again?" asked Coraline demandingly, not getting a good first impression of this kid as she found something strange about him.

"It's for my geology experiment. I hear there's some minerals to collect down at the old gold mine." explained Eggs.

"The mine? But that place is off limits! And we have to be back home in time to get to bed. It's a school night, for Pete's sake!" Coraline ranted, like a parent scolding a child when they's been out too long.

"I swear it won't take long. I just need to collect some things and I'm done." Eggs persistently continued with some assurance.

"I don't know." Coraline sighed, biting on her knuckle with thought.

"Come on." Norman nudged her playfully, making her look into his eyes. Seeing that she didn't have a choice and that the mine wasn't too far away anyway, she reluctantly agreed. The heavy chest was being transported by a wheeled cart. It sure was a hike from the suburbs to the old gold mine which was currently occupied by miners and construction workers. Of course, they ignored the fence with warning signs and carried on anyways. If what Eggs needed to do was important, they couldn't argue. Meanwhile, the young girl that Norman saw earlier was just a few miles from the mine, doing yoga stances to calm her nerves. Mary Langdon was a child prodigy by proxy, courtesy of her mother. Her mother was a very busy type and always striving for success at work. In addition, she wants her daughter to be the same as she wants her to attend the prestigious Werth Academy, which is where she attended as a child. Her mother organized everything in an almost robotic-like fashion. Then came her life plan; Mary would study day after day without having any fun activities or friends that would distract her from her future. It was just so boring. All that studying in her room just weighed her down. She was a bright child and did everything her mother wanted, but, oh, how she wished that one day she would stand up to her and tell her that she needs to stop doing what's best for herself. So here she was, getting some fresh air and listening to some tunes on her iPod and headphones which she secretly got.

At the cemetery just a block away from the mine, a young boy named Victor Frankenstein was visiting the grave of his beloved pet dog, Sparky. He eyed the tombstone with sorrow and he payed his respects. Days ago, Victor was playing a baseball game like his father suggested and hit the ball so hard it left the park and landed in the street. Sparky chased after it and was run over by a car. Victor wasn't the same after that. He was a prominent young film director, making movies with his best pal and also had a keen interest in science. He never played baseball again.

"If only you were here, boy." He sighed, sadness dripping from his voice.

Kubo was just sitting on a tree stump, sketching the rest of his dinosaur in his sketchbook, listening to the forest noises around him, finding it more comforting. Back with the trio, Eggs brought his equipment to a mountain wall in the area of the mine. Putting on his helmet and earbuds and grabbing his gear, he got to work on the small crack in the wall while humming to himself. While he was busy, Norman and Coraline wandered off into the woods, but not too far. Coraline found a large pond below the cliff she was standing on. Sighing, she took off her clothes to reveal that she was wearing her one-piece bathing suit on. Norman noticed from afar as she made her dive. He ran, but he was too late. Coraline had already dove into the water.

"Coraline! Coraline!" He screamed, but to no avail.

Norman couldn't see her, but he know it's nothing too serious. Eggs was just assembling a device which was comprised of dynamite and wires, oblivious to the fact that he was the only one there.

"They can call me weird. I'm not weird." Eggs went on while he worked.

Norman could see a full view of the town from where he was. It was beautiful, full of lights. Then he heard Coraline's voice.

"I can see you're probably wondering why I'm in my swimwear." She told him with a white towel wrapped around her body.

"Uh, yeah." He nodded, trying not to stare at her half-naked body.

"I wanted to come out here myself. But I wanted to be alone. You could imagine." Coraline explained to Norman as she stood next to him.

"Yeah, I defiantly would." He nodded.

Coraline sighed and looked down at the grass-covered ground and her bare feet. 

"Tori confronted me today at school again." She came clean.

"She did?"

"Yes. And out of all the insults she throws my way, today's was the worst." Coraline shook her head with her eyes stinging with fresh tears.

"Just don't listen to her, okay? She's not worth it." Norman comforted her as best he could.

"I know. But it's just tough, you know."

Meanwhile, Eggs was about ready for whatever crazy act he was about to do. Taking just a few feet away from the wall, he gently pressed the button on the controller which activated the device he planted over the crack on the wall, creating a loud, powerful explosion that blow a large hole in the wall. The explosion was so loud, it startled Norman and Coraline. They looked at each other with shock and confusion, before they rushed over with Coraline hurriedly getting her clothes back on. Even through the thick headphones blasting music into her ears, Mary heard the explosion from where she stood, but she also felt the vibrations it caused. Kubo and Victor also heard the explosion from miles away. It was loud enough for even China to hear from the other side of the Earth. Although confused, they each followed the direction of the noise.

Eggs was rummaging through the mess of rocks that he created until the duo ran over to him.

"What the hell are you doing?! Do you want to get us caught!?" Coraline screamed angrily at what he just did.

"I told you. I needed to collect something!" Eggs argued back.

"Well, hurry up, you idiot! Before somebody-!"

"Hey!"

They all winced and looked up to see Mary standing above on the edge of the cliff and gazed down at them with annoyance.

"Are you guys trying to wake the whole world up? You're in a restricted area!" She hollered.

"Well, so are you!" Coraline shouted back, snappily.

Mary scoffed in offense when she said that and tried to think of a good comeback when she saw Norman, the same boy she saw in the street this morning.

"Hey, you're that weird kid who was talking to a dead raccoon." Mary pointed out as she climbed down. 

"That's not important." Norman muttered.

Mary was now on the ground level with the rest of the trio as she joined up with them to see what the explosion caused.

"Did you guys seriously blow a hole in the mountain wall? You three are gonna in so much trouble." Mary warned strictly. "Just wait until the authorities arrive."

"What was that explosion? Is everyone alright?" 

Kubo stood a few feet behind them as he called out to them. He raced over to them, followed by Victor. 

"Great. Let's just have a party." Norman rolled his eyes. 

"Woah! Your parents are gonna be so pissed when they hear about this." Kubo commented once he saw the blast site.

"Why are you here then? You know this place is off limits." said Norman knowingly.

"Well, you don't normally hear explosions at a gold mine. At least out in the open. And I should be asking you the same thing." 

"Blame him!" Coraline jabbed a finger at Eggs while raising her voice. "It was all his idea to come here in the first place!"

"Hey, guys!" interrupted Eggs as he found something peculiar. "You really got to see this. You're not gonna believe it."

Everyone did what he said and they all looked to see what he was looking at. There were six coins in the mess of dust and rocks. But they weren't ordinary coins, like the once used for currency. They were bigger and had different colors. Each kid grabbed one to look at them up close with curiosity. Coraline had the pink one, Eggs was holding the blue, Norman grabbed the green, Kubo was observing the red, Mary, the yellow and Victor had the black one. Strange as it was interesting, no one has ever made a discovery like this.

"Have any of you ever seen something like this before?" asked Norman, looking at the green coin.

"Never." Coraline shook her head.

"I don't remember a coin being this big." Kubo pointed out.

But then their moment had to come to an end once they heard cars coming their way and it didn't take a moron to figure out that the authorities heard the explosion in their location and were coming to investigate the commotion. They knew then and there that they needed to leave now before they get seen.

"Oh, great. We really need to get out of here." Coraline said as Eggs rushed to get his stuff back in his chest and onto the cart.

"If only someone thought about that before. Oh, wait. I did." Mary jabbed with a sarcastic smile.

"Oh, shut up! Let's just get going!" snapped Coraline, not in the right mood for any snide comments.

"Alright! Alright!" Mary yapped.

The kids made haste in helping Eggs with the chest and removing themselves from the spot they were in and ran into the woods, carrying his things and trying to hide from the miners and construction workers as they shined their flashlights all over the place. The kids peered at them from the woods, hoping they wouldn't come looking for them or notice they were there.

"This was a real thought out plan, Eggs!" Coraline whispered in an angered manner. "Now we're all gonna get in trouble. I hope you thought of a plan to get us out of this."

"Let's just wait until they lose interest, then we make a break for it." Eggs whispered back.

"That's your plan?" whispered Mary.

Victor looked to see some flashlights coming their way and he knew the workers were coming their way.

"They're coming." He urged in a hushed voice.

When they noticed as well, they quickly, but quietly snuck their way through the woods, trying not to make a sound to arouse the workers suspicion. The chest was a little heavy to be carried while in a situation where we're trying to avoid being caught in a hurry. Once they were as far away from the area, they were finally nearing the fence. Coraline found the hole that they used to crawl in through earlier, thanks to Eggs and his bolt cutters, and the kids each crawled back out. Eggs yanked his chest through the hole and hid the evidence by bending the fence until the cut parts were aligning and looked as if it was never cut. Putting the chest on the cart where they left it, they were able to get away as fast as possible. They ran and ran and didn't stop running until they were back in the neighborhood.

"Oh, man, I'm so glad we got out of that." Eggs sighed with relief.

"Don't get comfortable just yet. Because I'm so gonna kill you for this dragging us into that!" Coraline hissed threateningly.

"Hey, I'm sorry, okay? At least we made it back." blubbered Eggs.

"Consider yourself lucky that our parents won't find out about this." Norman warned him, sending a straight look his way.

"My mom would probably ground me for sneaking out behind her back." Mary said. "She doesn't take certain things very well. Believe me."

"So you're that kid who slapped that big guy in class today?" asked Kubo to Norman.

"You saw that?" He asked.

"Yeah, I did. I've never seen anyone stand up to a bully like that." Kubo nodded.

"We should probably be heading home now." Norman said. "See you all later. Sorry that this all had to happen and good night."

He grabbed Coraline's hand and together they parted ways with the other kids to head for their block. Eggs carried his chest in the cart all the way home while Kubo, Mary and Victor went home as well to get to bed before their parents discovered they were all out after dark. As the duo walked, Coraline snickered.

"I can't believe you slapped Alvin in the face." She giggled, covering her ear-to-ear smile behind her hand.

"You get used to it." He only shrugged nonchalantly.

"If only I had the courage and willpower to give Tori her just desserts." said Coraline, almost imagining it.

"I sure hope my parents don't find out I was at a restricted area with a few kids I didn't know. My dad might ground me and Courtney will probably sit on me until I told the truth about why I was out. It's happened before. Don't ask." Norman explained.

"Wasn't going to." Coraline held her hands up in mock-surrender.

"Well, there's my house and there's yours. Anyway, let's try to keep what we've experienced tonight a secret." Norman said as they both stopped in front of their houses.

"Agreed." She nodded.

"Good night and see you at the bus stop tomorrow." Norman walked up to his front porch away from Coraline who did the same.

"Good night, Norman."

Once he entered the house, it was quiet as could be. No sign of his parents or his sister, for that matter. They must be asleep, he figured. Giving a sigh, he quietly walked up the stairs and into his room. As he laid there in his bed, his mind replayed the events that have occurred. Was Eggs really crazy enough to break into a restricted mine just to collect minerals? Was it really necessary to create that explosion when he should've known there were authorities nearby? And what exactly were those mysteriously colored coins? Surely, they couldn't be natural or of this planet. But what could that mean? Did they come from space or something? Did some aliens leave those here a long time ago? As ridiculous as it was unlikely, Norman shook his head. The best thing to do was just not think about it and just move on. It's nothing important.

Or is it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cliffhanger! I know. Ha ha ha! Anyway, so now we've been introduced to the kids who have discovered the coins. Could this mean that they were all chosen? Find out soon in the next chapters.


	4. Searching for Answers

Norman gasped as he awoke from a terrifying nightmare in which he was attacked by a witch’s vengeful ghost. He was used to this kind of thing, but something about it was far too much for even him to handle. Panting away the tense feeling in his heart and wiping the sleep from his eyes before he heard a rude knocking at his door followed by the obnoxious call of his sister.

“Rise and shine, you little weirdo.” Courtney shouted unenthusiastically, bringing a frown to Norman’s face, reminding him how snobby and unappreciative his older sister can be.

Norman entered the bathroom to brush his teeth like he always did after and before going to bed. That’s when the unexplainable occured. When he rested a hand on the edge of the sink, it broke off under his grip as if it were extremely fragile, shattering into pieces on the floor and making Norman lose his balance as a result, sending him falling on his back. Taken aback by this strange turn of events, he eyed the broken part of the basin where he put his hand and the appendage itself. Did he suddenly get so strong overnight? Or was the sink growing weak with age? Then he had a theory. He threw his shirt off and his theory was proven correct. He was growing some small, but barely noticeable muscles and six-pack. There’s no way that’s possible. Or is there?

Norman quickly brushed his teeth and got dressed, careful not to break anything else with his newly-developed strength. A bell rang in his mind with a slight jingle, but it was audible nonetheless. The green coin he left on his nightstand. The coin that he found last night. He made a mental note to show this to Coraline as he picked it up and put it in his backpack.

While Coraline was waiting for Norman at the bus stop, her phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out and assumed the worst. Yes. A notification on her phone for her FaceBook page. Tori and her little legion of horrors were sending rude and scandalous comments like “DIE B!TCH!” or “KLL URSELF!” among other insults and taunting death threats that boiled Coraline’s blood like a soup pot. First that Tori ends their friendship out of the blue, shuts her out of her life for the sake of popularity and now she’s humiliating her online. The nerve of that girl! It just makes Coraline want to crack her skull open with a hammer and say it was an accident. As her grip on her phone tightened in response to her growing rage, it broke under her fingers. This made her forget her anger, morphing it into shock and bewilderment. She gasped at what she had done and darted her eyes around, hoping nobody was around to see that and hid the remains of her phone in her hand and made decision to get a new phone.

“Hey, Cor.” Norman arrived finally.

“Morning, Norman.” Coraline simply said, hoping he didn’t see her crush her phone in her hand just now.

“I need to tell you something.” explained Norman.

“What?”

“I’ve noticed some changes about me this morning.” Norman absentmindedly confessed, letting his eyes wander away from her.

“Uh, really? You’re actually telling me this now? Dude, you know it happens sooner or later right?” Coraline asked, believing he was going through puberty.

“That’s not what I meant! I already know that’s happening.” Norman scoffed. “I’m talking about this.”

He lifted his shirt up to reveal his six-pack to her, earning a look of surprise in response.

“Holy-! Is that real?” Coraline asked, delicately tracing a finger over his abs and they felt tight and real. “Since when did you get ripped? Are you on some kind of weight-lifting regime that I don’t know about?”

“No! I just found myself this way when I woke up.” Norman explained to her. “It wasn’t like that yesterday. And I think I’m getting stronger too. I kinda broke the side of the bathroom sink.”

“Stronger, you say?” Coraline repeated with deep thought before looking at her ruined phone.

“Yeah.” Norman nodded.

“I think I’m on the same page as you are.” Coraline expressed.

“What do you mean by that?”

Reluctantly, Coraline revealed what was once her phone in her hands, now the crushed remains. Norman started to piece everything together in her minds.

“Do you think that ever since we found those coins, things have been getting different about us?”

“I don’t know.” Coraline said. “Hopefully it’s nothing to serious.”

The bus arrived and they were taken to school. And meanwhile, the rest of the kids who had found the coins were undergoing similar changes and displaying odd abilities that cannot be easily explained. Kubo had accidentally squeezed all the toothpaste out of the tube while he was brushing his teeth. He tried to clean it up, but only ended up cracking the mirror glass. When Mary hit her knee against something hard, she let out a loud scream of pain. However, her scream was extremely louder in volume than normally possible and she inadvertently created powerful sound waves from her mouth that literally shook the earth, shattered all the windows and windshields all around her and the car alarms everywhere blared in annoyance. Even Victor gripped the door handle a little too tightly as he walked out the door, leaving it dented. Once at school, Eggs was putting all his things in his locker trying to forget what happened last night. That is until Alvin came by, looking for possible revenge for his humiliation yesterday. He slammed the locker door on Eggs in effort to gain his attention. And when he did, he was far from happy.

“Well, well, well. Here we are, alone at last.” Alvin mocked with a sinister face. “Looks like your little bodyguard, ParaNorman, ain’t here to save your ass now.”

“Look, Alvin, I don’t want any trouble-”

“A little late for that, geek.” Alvin quipped as he grabbed Eggs’ wrist. “Let’s see you arrange your pencils now.”

With that being said, Alvin twisted the dirty boy’s wrists in attempt to snap them as his payback for making him look like an idiot in front of the class. However, in doing so, Eggs’ wrist wouldn’t twist any further around as his bones refused to budge. Confused, but determined, Alvin kept this up a few more times before trying another method. He grabbed Eggs’ shoulder and smacked his forehead onto Eggs’ to knock him out. Eggs didn’t even wince upon impact. He barely felt a thing. Alvin, on the other hand, did. For him, it was like smashing his head against a brick wall and he started to fall unconscious as a result.

“Oh, wait. Don’t do that. Get up. Get up!” Eggs tried to deter him from making scene, but the big, fat bully was already out like a light on the floor. Onlookers surrounding them were speechless and suddenly cheered, believing Eggs had beaten Alvin in a fight. But he managed to slip away without saying a word, though some were amazed by what had happened that they wanted to hang out. During lunchtime, Norman and Coraline needed a word with him about the events last night. They found him at a lunch table, surrounded by many students as he was telling them stories in his peak of pride over his altercation with Alvin.

“Hey, can we speak with you for a minute?” Coraline asked.

“But I’m kinda in the middle of a-”

“Great!” Coraline paid no heed as she grabbed him out of his seat and pulled him further away from the students over to the lunch line with Norman.

“Eggs, do you feel weird?” Coraline whispered to Eggs.

“Weird how? Like weird and unusual?” asked Eggs.

“Yeah.” She nodded as she placed her pink coin on the silver counter where the trays are placed. Eggs let out an exclaim of realization and yanked out his blue coin and placed it down. Norman join in as he put his green coin on the counter.

“Look, something really strange happened last night and somehow, we’re not the same.” Norman explained.

“Me neither. I’m strong.” added Eggs, voicing his own shock.

“How strong exactly?” Coraline asked.

“Like insanely strong. I just knocked out Alvin and I didn’t feel a thing. Is that really normal?”

“Can’t believe I’m saying this, but I feel like we should go back out there.” Coraline said.

“To the mine?” asked Eggs.

“Yeah. And hopefully undo the mess you got us in.” Coraline said angrily, pointing an accusatory finger at his face.

“So you’re blaming me for this?” Eggs scoffed.

“Who else asked us to help you out with your little geology demolition experiment?” Coraline snapped.

“I needed assistance!”

“Guys, please!” Norman yelled, disrupting their petty argument as this wasn’t the best time to throw blames at each other. But then a low whir brought their eyes down to the coins, making them see that they were suddenly levitating into the air and they quickly placed their hands on them, hiding them from view. But abruptly, the counter they were on started to feel warm and started to smoke.

“The counter’s boiling.” remarked Norman.

He was right, of course, as they say saw that the coins were now burning the silver counter and making it bubble from the increase rise in temperature. Not only that, but everything else that was on the counter or near it started to melt or explode, surprising the students who were in the lunch line. Drinks cans blew up, spraying their contents all over the students’ clothes as they screamed helplessly. The trio made up their minds to try to access this new discovery as soon as possible.

“After school, okay?” Norman said and Coraline nodded.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Angel Grove marina, there had been a report about the corpse of a recently deceased woman found in the ocean of the coast of the city. The police department was called down to access the situation. Deputy Ethan Yates waded down the dock to the boat he was looking for; belonging to its captain, Layton Skinner, who was out doing a routine fishing when he and his crew had caught the woman in his fishing net.

“Ah, I’m glad you could come by.” Skinner greeted the deputy.

“Are you sure it’s a woman, captain?” asked Yates as he was brought onto the boat where Skinner opened up the hatch leading to the room where the caught fish is stored and also where the woman’s body is stored.

“Not the best looking woman, but why don’t you see for yourself?” said Skinner.

“Ugh, that smell is foul.” Yates cringed his disgust, covering his nose, not from the smell of the fish, but the smell of decay. Skinner, however, was no stranger to these kind of smells. Being a sea captain who makes a living out of capturing nautical creatures.

“Yeah. Ain’t sure how long she’s been dead or been in the ocean water. But it’s a lucky thing we caught her.” explained Skinner. “Stored inside a fishing boat holding 20 pounds of freshly-caught dead fish. Can you believe that?”

“Hope you won’t mind if I took a quick peak?” requested Yates.

“Yeah, yeah.” Skinner nodded as he went to hop off the boat. “Just lock up when you’re done and there’s some beer in the fridge.”

The young deputy maneuvered down the ladder into the dark storage cabin where all the fresh game are placed on counters full of ice only lit by the open hatch in the ceiling. Pulling out his torch, he jumped once he aimed the light upon the aforementioned corpse wrapped in a plastic bag amongst the fish. Recovering from his shock, he inched closer to get a good spectacle of the boney, rotting cadaver concealed inside that perfectly-clean plastic. Suddenly, some fish fell to the floor, startling Yates and making him jump. Grunting with irritation from that, he decided to call for some backup.

“Unit 2, this is Deputy Yates. We got a body here of a deceased female.” He spoke into his walkie-talkie when suddenly, the corpse emitted an unnatural green glow, followed by what sounded like gasping inhales, catching the deputy off guard in midst of his message. However, he did what nobody should ever do in situations like this. When he turned around, the body had ripped a hole through the plastic and leaped out at him with her ghastly, boney hands with a loud, haunting shriek.

* * *

After school, the trio had snuck out under everyone’s noses to head back to the gold mine where they discovered the coins. They needed to find some answers to what was happening to them fast. Because nobody finds colored coins in a mine and wakes up with such weird abilities that no normal human can possess. They had to scale the fence to get to the other side and, to their luck, there were no authorities there. The three approached the very spot where Eggs set off that explosion from last night to see that Victor was there along with Kubo.

“Guys, look. It’s those two again.” Coraline pointed out.

“Hey, did you guys find anything at all?” asked Norman, shouting out to the two by the ash-black telltale explosion mark on the mountain wall who were using shovels to dig up the rocks, searching for something, but it felt like a lost cause.

“Not really!” Victor shouted back. “There’s not much to find, I’m afraid.”

“We’ve been at this for a while now!” Kubo shouted back as well, picking at more rocks.

“We know why you’re here!” hollered Coraline.  
“Say, you guys wake up to find yourselves jumping off a house?” Kubo shouted to them.

“Yeah, sort of. Not really.” Eggs answered distractedly. “Look, we’re different, okay? We’re all different. Everything is different.”

“You’re Victor, right?” Coraline asked.

“And you’re Kubo, correct?” added Norman to the foreign boy.

“Yeah. That’s right.” They both said simultaneously.

“You go to the same school as we do?” Norman asked Victor.

“Yeah, I’m in science and anatomy class. Learning out to dissect frogs.” Victor responded. “You know, that other girl was here too. What’s her name? Mary. Yeah, she was here like an hour ago.”

“You mean her?” Eggs exclaimed, pointing out to Mary who was walking down a rocky trail high above the explosion site just minding her own business, barely conscious of the others’ presence.

“Hey! Come on down! We can figure this out together!” Norman screamed out to her, getting her attention, while putting his hands over his mouth to amplify his voice. Victor and Kubo shared a knowing look as like they were making a huge mistake. Once she saw them, Mary’s eyes bulged with fear and just like that, she darted off away from the group and began climbing up the rocky hill wall in seconds top like a spider, much to the trio’s surprise.

“Woah.” Coraline marveled while Victor and Kubo started climbing up the wall after her.

“She got up there pretty fast, right?” Eggs remarked, but then Coraline jumped ahead and darted after, despite the boys’ protests, and then everyone began to climb up the rocky wall like experienced mountain climbers, but without the assistance of equipment. They all got to the top of the tall hill to catch up to Mary, who only stopped when she was about a few inches away from running off a cliff leading into a deep, dark chasm down below. The rest of the kids caught up and tried to reason with her as best they could.

“Stop!” Coraline shouted.

“There’s no need to run from this, okay?” reasoned Norman. “I know you’re confused right now and so are we.”

“Look, we get it, alright? Let’s just talk this through.” said Coraline. “We can discuss this out like human beings. We don’t even know what…”

In midst of her sentence, Mary was still uncertain of the situation and then she suddenly took a giant leap right over the cliff to the other side, catching them all by surprise. It was about 12 or 20 meters across and she landed on her feet without effort. While the boys gasped with disbelief and amazement, Coraline shook her head at the girl’s desperate need to escape in a time like this when they need to be looking for an explanation.

“My god, what is her problem?” She muttered with annoyance.

“You’re crazy, you know that?” Kubo screamed out to her, but suddenly felt compelled to do the same thing she just did as he took a few feet back while the others were trying to deter him from doing anything stupid.

“No, wait, Kubo!” They all shouted, but it was no use. Kubo let out a whoop of excitement as he ran for the edge of the cliff and jumped all the way across and landed on the other side.

“Just jump across!” He instructed the others.

Victor suddenly leaped across in spite of himself, ignoring the dissuasion of the rest and made it without getting hurt. It was then Coraline felt the destructive 5-year old inside her wiggle free as she felt like jumping as well.

“Let’s do it! It’s a piece of cake!” She said with a huge grin and jumped over next.

Norman sighed before he leaped across the chasm to join the others on the other side, leaving Eggs by himself in fear.

“That’s not a piece of cake!” He complained.

The two made to the other cliff with Coraline landing on her feet and Norman landing on his belly. Coraline helped him to his feet.

“You okay?” She asked.

“Yeah, no problem.” Norman winced before turning to face Eggs, who was all alone now. “Come on, you got this, Eggs!”

“No, I don’t!”

“It’s fun!” Kubo screamed.

“That’s a really far jump!” shrieked Eggs in a shrill, panicky voice.

“Eggs, we all made it!” Norman spoke.

While the others were trying to talk him into it and assure him that he’ll be fine, Eggs was in a moment of fear of what would happen if he didn’t made it across like they did. He always had a fear of heights as a kid and his mind projected possibilities of what might occur if he fell to his death in that deep chasm, pacing around to decide whether he should leap or not.

“That looks like a long way down. There’s no way I could survive that.” Eggs muttered to himself, acting as a logical voice in his head. “If you don’t survive, Eggs, what do you think will happen? Your dad’s gonna be alone with your uncles and they have no medical experience whatsoever and your dad’s gonna die with nobody by his side.”

“Just do it, Eggs!” Norman shouted.

Breathing a sigh, Eggs realized there was no way around this. So mustering up all the courage needed to perform this without dying, he ran for the cliff and took a huge leap, yelling all the while while his captive audience watched. In mid-leap, Eggs started flailing around helplessly once he saw how deep that chasm below his feet was and was nearing the edge of the cliff. He finally caught onto the edge and climbed up.

“See, I told you you got this!” Norman congratulated him.

“That wasn’t so bad, now, was it?” smiled Coraline.

“I did it! Yeah! Ha ha! Woah- _WAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!_ ” Eggs did a little dance out of pride when he lost his balance and found himself falling backwards over the ledge, descending deep into the hole.

“EGGS!” screamed Norman as he and Victor rushed over to see where he was. There was nothing, but complete silence now as they waited in anticipation for some kind of response to make sure he was okay and not suffered a gruesome demise.

“EGGS!” Norman called again, but there was no answer.

“Is he dead?” asked Victor with worry.

“What do we do?” Coraline asked. “What are we gonna tell his family?”

“Hey, you guys, you really got come down here! You need to come see this!” Eggs’ voice suddenly called out from inside the chasm, alive and well, much to their relief.

“Thank god!” Kubo exclaimed.

“I think we should get down there. Bring her with you.” Victor said, gesturing to Mary before taking a leap down into the descending darkness below them.

“Come on, guys! Let’s go!” Norman leaped down with him followed by Kubo.

Coraline was about to jump in as well before realizing Mary there. She gave her a face before turning to leave, not wanting any business with them or what was going on. Coraline groaned with exasperation and rolled her eyes as she was fed up with this nonsense.

“Come here!” She roughly grabbed her by her collar and dragged her over to the ledge with her.

“Hey, let go of me!” Mary yelped, trying to break free before Coraline jumped down into the chasm, carrying Mary with her, against her will. They both screamed as they plummeted fast and ended up falling into a natural pool of some kind with the rest of the boys.

“Welcome back!” Kubo greeted with a smile, trying to stay afloat.

“That really was fun.” said Eggs, getting a kick out of this.

“Hey, guys.” Norman began as he noticed that he and them were all glowing different colors underwater. “Check out how we all glow.”

Everyone laughed with wonder to see the luminescent, variously-colored lights they were emitting off their bodies in the water.

“Wow!” Mary cried, observing her yellow glow.

“I’m blue!” Eggs cried with a chuckle.

“I’m pink!” said Coraline. “Never been a pink person until now.”

“I’m black!” Victor replied.

“What?” Eggs exclaimed with confusion, raising an eyebrow.

“I am!”

“No, you’re not!” gripped Eggs.

“He means the glow, you moron!” Coraline splashed him playfully and they all shared a laugh. Then Eggs poked his head under the water and looked below to find something oddly peculiar and quite curious. Lifting his head up for a breath of air, he faced the others with a look with that of  bewilderment.

“Guys, there’s something down there! Follow me!”

Inhaling a deep breath, everyone dived down underwater and swam with Eggs to see what he saw. They all swam and swam until they happened upon some kind of wall where they saw their reflections in. The bubbles were all floating in the wall’s direction instead of upward. Curious, Eggs pressed a hand against it and it fell right through it. His hand suddenly felt cold and there was no water on the other end, making him pull his hand back, baffled. Norman poked a finger on the wall, creating a light ripple on the surface. Then everyone slipped their hands through it and then their heads as they felt a breath of oxygen when they did.

“Where are we?” asked Victor.

“Norman, I’m sliding.” Eggs mentioned before gravity took over and he fell straight down as everyone was upside down. Everyone else fell through and landed on the cavern grounds, soaking wet. Everyone got back to their feet and looked up to see the surface of the pool above their walls like a ceiling.

“This defies natural physics.” Eggs exclaimed out of disbelief.

Looking all around, they were inside of a cave by the looks of it. All the walls were moist, presumably from the water. Coraline pressed a hand on them and felt them vibrate.

“The walls are shaking.” She said.

“Come on.” said Norman.

Eggs pulled out his flashlight and all six children walked down a tunnel to look and see where they were.


	5. The Power Rangers

Everyone gasped with surprise once they’ve all gotten deeper into the cave. What they were standing in looked like a giant extraterrestrial spaceship that’s been buried underground for thousands of years. Based on the vibrations, all the otherworldly technology and machinery still appeared to be active, despite being left alone for lord knows how long. There was some steps leading to a doorway. It was truly a sight to behold and they were likely the first modern humans to have ever witness such a structure.

“Look at this.” breathed Eggs, eyes darting all around. “This must’ve been here for a million years.”

“I got a bad feeling about this.” Mary said, concerned and somewhat nervous.

Norman pulled out his green coin to notice that was glowing brightly.

“Hey, guys. Look.” He said and they all got a view of it and wondered what this meant. Before they could react, the doorway activated and slid open, allowing them entry. Although confused, they all walked up the flight of steps and found themselves inside of the mysterious craft, surrounded by an array of lights and strange interior designs.

“Oh my god!” Kubo expressed with wide eyes.

“Shh!” Norman shushed him.

“You think there’s aliens in here?” asked Victor.

“Guys, be quiet!” whispered Norman, reminding them that this was not the time for that.

“Uh, is this all real?” Egg asked. “Are we really standing inside of an alien spaceship right now?”

“Yeah, we are. Just remain calm, okay?” Norman consoled him.

“Okay, I think we’ve seen enough. We should probably head back now and my mom’s gonna start wondering where I’m at and…”

Mary cut herself off mid-sentence when Norman shushed her as he could hear something inside.

“There’s something in here.” He whispered softly.

Suddenly, the foundation around them started to operate seemingly on its own. Machinery flickering and lighting up to their own volition. The kids started to panic as the stairs they entered the place with started to form into a floor, stranding them inside.

“Guys, the floor!” Victor shouted.

“We’re trapped!” screamed Mary in terror.

“Come on, guys! Let’s go!” Norman lead everyone down a hallway to find a place to hide and stay safe. The group ran into a room and hid themselves from view when there came the sound of mechanical sounds coming from down the corridor with a bright light coming in close. There was definitely something in the ship with them and everyone stayed perfectly quiet so as to not give away their hiding spot and waited for whatever it was to go away. Suddenly, Mary was grabbed by the leg and was being dragged across the floor by an elongated arm. She screamed, fearing for her life while Victor went to help her out.

Whatever was dragging her, brought her face-to-face with a small robot with two lights possibly for the eyes as it stared back at her and said in a robotic, humanoid male voice with glee.

“Oh my gosh, you’re here!”

Victor rushed to her aid, but the robot flipped him over its shoulder and sent him tumbling onto the floor behind him. Everyone dashed over and stood in front of the thing, ready to defend themselves.

“Don’t make us hurt you.” warned Norman.

“Hurt me? How?” asked the robot.

“There’s six of us.” Coraline told it, panting.

“Yes, I know. I’ve been waiting for you!” The robot responded, before noticing one of them was missing. “Wait a minute. Where’s the other guy? One, two, three, four, five, oh! There he is!”

The robot looked behind him and stretched his arm out to bring Victor back over to the group, bringing him to his feet.

“All of you!” declared the robot.

“You’re in an alien spaceship under the ground. How long were you waiting?” asked Eggs.

“What is today? Monday?” The robot asked.

“Yeah.” Victor nodded.

“Then…...65 million years!” chirped the miniaturized robot. “I’ve been very lonely! You’re all so young!”

“Is this about the coins?” asked Norman.

“Yes! The coins. Different coins, different colors, different colored kids! Thank god, you’ve come!” The robot raised its arms out to them, making them jump back. “Turn around.”

Hesitantly, the children all turned around to see they were standing inside some kind of mission control room or something with a large, grey wall in front of them. Could it be the screen or something else? As they carefully followed the tiny robot inside, they were still afraid.

“This is so weird.” Eggs whispered.

“Let’s just focus on getting out of here.” Coraline told them all. “When we get the chance, we just run like hell, okay?”

“What if we don’t get the chance?” Norman asked.

“Then we kill it.” Kubo suggested.

Just then, a strange ball of light lit up in the center of a giant mechanism inside of the room and the robot gestured them forward.

“Please, step into the footprints. Come on. Doesn’t hurt.” The robot said.

“Uh, pardon me. But who or what are you?” Eggs asked, raising his hand awkwardly.

“I’m Alpha 5. Malformic persona android.” answered Alpha. “Simply a talking robot. You can trust me.”

Eggs was the one who went first against his better judgement. Speechless and breathless at the same time, he tapped a gentle foot and the bright platform and it beeped upon contact. He suddenly felt giddy about giving this a shot and gestured for everyone else to step on the other ones. Reluctantly, they all stood on the rest and Norman slowly stood on his last, which activated the machine in the room, causing a huge quake while it began to work. Everyone held onto the bars on their sides to keep from falling off.

“Oh, it’s working! It’s working! Zordon! Zordon, are you there?” Alpha shouted out to the wall for some reason. On the wall appeared a human face as it cried out in his native language, confused and disoriented.

_ “Alpha, where are we?” _

_ “Zordon, it’s nice to finally hear your voice!” _ Alpha chirped, using the same language.

_ “Alpha, I can see you, but I can’t see me!” _ shouted Zordon.  _ “Where am I?” _

_ “You’re inside the ship! I’ve sealed your essence into the ship’s matrix to keep you alive.” _

During their conversation, the kids all seized the opportunity to make their getaway and find a way to get out of this weird spaceship

_ “But the ship is on?” _ asked Zordon.

_ “The power coins have finally come back to the ship, sir.” _

Suddenly, the entrance to the room slammed shut before any of the kids could make their way through, trapping them all inside. There was no way out now at this point.

_ “Where are the coins? Where are the rangers?” _ demanded the giant head on the wall that appeared to be composed of millions of tiny cubical shapes.

“Come forward, please, if you will.” Alpha told the kids.

“I don’t like this at all.” Coraline whispered to them.

“We really don’t have a choice. There’s nowhere else to go in this ship.” explained Norman.

_ “They speak a primitive dialect called English.” _ spoke Alpha to the talking wall.  _ “You’ll find it in the ship’s matrix.” _

As the confused and quiet children edged closer and closer, Zordon got a good look upon them and appeared to be checking them all out, observing them.

“Look, it’s Zordon!” cried Alpha.

“Who?” asked Victor.

“Zordon,” began Alpha lamely to his master. “They don’t know who you are.”

“These are them? The new rangers? But they’re so small.” replied Zordon in a booming voice, now speaking in English.

“That’s what I said.” Alpha laughed.

“You mean to tell me that the fate of the entire universe rests in the hands of these….children?” Zordon scoffed with disbelief as he moved his head from side to side, getting a different angle from his point-of-view.

“Well, they’re preteens, sir.” said Alpha. “Somewhere between infancy and full-grown maturity.”

“There must be some mistake.” Zordon responded.

“It’s kinda hard to explain, really…”

“Show me the coins!” ordered the giant humanoid head on the moving wall. Norman and the gang all pulled out their coins and held them up to him, confirming the theory correct. “I don’t believe it. The Morphing Grid is never wrong. The Power Coins returned to the ship with these….”

“Preteens!” Alpha yelled.

“With these preteens.” Zordon sighed in aggravation, shaking his head. “Then these preteens are the Power Rangers.”

“Power Rangers!” cheered Alpha with excited enthusiasm.

“What?” peeped Mary with worse confusion in her voice than any of them. They all looked at each other, sharing the same look while Eggs had a huge smile on his face. What the hell was happening right now? They were all baffled by this odd news. First they discovers these coins at the mine, they get these freakish powers, fall into a pool, now there standing inside of a giant spaceship with a tiny, funny-talking robot and a head on the wall telling them they were Power Rangers.

“Hold on. Excuse me, sir. Did I hear you say that we’re ‘Power Rangers’?” asked Victor, not sure if he heard him correctly.

“Yes!” concurred Zordon as he zipped his head over to the left side of the wall to get a better view of him. “You are the Power Rangers. Any more questions?”

“No, sir.” Victor shook his head.

“Thought so.”

“Uh, hello. How are you?” Eggs stood forward, making Zordon shift to the other side to face the English boy. “Hi, I’m Jerome Llewelyn Ambrose Westingraft Trubshaw. But everyone calls me “Eggs”, since they say that would cramp a bunch of-”

“Eggs, please!” Norman stopped before he could provide too much information and since he needed to get serious. Eggs moved over to the glowing ball of light in the center that revealed six figures in different-colored suits and standing in a circle.

“The images here in this sphere of glowing lights of some kind tell the history of the Power Rangers.” Eggs explained with knowledge. “And the Power Rangers were a team of intergalactic warriors who protected all of life in the galaxy. And life is a bright light. Or is it a piece of light?”

“Yes.” Zordon answered, impressed by the boy’s intellectual skills on the matter. “Very good, Eggs. It is called the Zeo Crystal.”

“Oh, sweet. I love this part.” said Alpha as the sphere began to put on a holographic scene that followed along with the story as Zordon continued.

“Every planet in the universe that had life has a piece of the Crystal buried inside it.” 

“65 million years ago, Zordon’s team died defending the Crystal right here in this very spot that you humans nowadays call Angel Grove.” Alpha took over.

“The Coins have chosen you six children. Now you all must do everything in your best ability to protect the Zeo Crystal and all life on Earth.” finished Zordon.

“Because we’re the Power Rangers?” concluded Norman, putting pieces together.

“Smart boy.” nodded Alpha.

“I’m sorry, but is this some kind of joke?” asked Coraline who was still having trouble wrapping her head around all of this. “I mean, here I am standing in the center of some freakishly large alien spaceship deep underground, I’m soakin wet, I got a wet wedgie in my pants, my socks were squiggling and we’re talking to a wall-”

“ _ SILENCE! _ ” bellowed the voice of Zordon as everyone started to levitate into the air and then, out of nowhere, Norman found himself back in his room in bed under the covers. Taken aback, he sat up, wondering if it was all a dream before he sat up and walked over to his bedroom door and opened it. But when he did, there was the town street right outside his door as if his house was placed in the middle of the road. He walked out and found his house nowhere in sight and he started hearing a voice calling out his name. 

Then all of the sudden, in the very distance, a bright green light fastly approached him and he found himself surrounded by the petrified stone statues of the Angel Grove citizens, including his own family. Then a creepy woman with long black hair in a green suit and carrying a staff stood in front of him, shrieking and screaming a high-pitched scream. Eggs, Coraline, Kubo, Mary and Victor were all in the same vision as they all saw the post-apocalyptic world of their hometown and they all gasped in terror. When they each back away into the once-human statues, they turned into dust, sending them all falling to the ground and finding themselves back to reality in the spaceship.

“I’m detecting elevated heart rates.” said Alpha obviously. “They’re pretty scared, sir.”

“I don’t get it!” shouted Norman, stepping forward with a firm glance toward Zordon. “Why would you show us that nightmare?!”

“It’s not a nightmare, young man.” Zordon told him strictly. “It’s the future of what is to come.”

“That felt so real.” Mary gasped.

“Who was that woman?” Victor demanded.

“Her name is Rita Repulsa” explained Zordon. “The one you are now. She will create Goldar, a huge monster who will tear through Angel Grove and rip the Crystal right out of the earth and all life on your planet will die. With the Crystal, Rita will have the power to create and destroy worlds all across reality itself.”

“So, uh, let me get this straight just to clarify all this.” Mary called from farther away. “So you want us to kill this woman, Rita?”

“Ay, ay, ay.” Alpha shook his head at the mention of her name.

“She must be stopped by any means necessary.” Zordon explained.

“When is she coming?” Coraline asked.

“She’s already here. She’s already been found. My best guess is that it should take 11 months. I mean, days.” replied Alpha.

“So if I’m a Power Ranger and this is my ship, if I try to walk through that door, will it open for me?” asked Mary, really wanting to get out of the ship.

“Yes, of course.” Zordon nodded.

With that said, everyone zipped towards the door and left the room, much to Zordon’s annoyance and Alpha’s excessant protests, though only Norman remained. As he was about to leave, Zordon spoke out to him.

“Norman, my ranger team died defending the Crystal from Rita. That’s why I’m in this wall.”

“How did you know my name?” asked the medium boy.

“Because it’s you, Norman Babcock.” Zordon added with wisdom, showing a figure of the Green Ranger on the matrix. “You are the leader. You’re the Green Ranger. Rita was a Green Ranger, too, and my closest ally. But she betray us. All of us. She wanted more power. She lost her way. Now she is just pure evil. She may not have been a leader or have had a happy ending, but I know you can do better than her. I know you can be a better Green Ranger than she ever was or ever will be. You have to believe in yourself. You must bring them all together. Bring back all of the Rangers. You must train your team to stop Rita before she has the strength to find the Crystal.”

“Okay, bye.” Norman had heard enough and was making his way to the exit. “And we’re not a team.”

“No! You are a team! You speak for all of them. You know that deep down, what I am saying is true. You were born for this.”

Norman took a moment to let his words sink in before he left out the ship and caught back up with the others outside into the cave where the ceiling of water hanged above them. 

“You all waited.” Norman replied, then asked Mary, “What is your name, by the way?”

“Really? You’re gonna ask me that now?” She asked sarcastically.

“Just answer the question!” Norman shrieked in irritation, not in the right mood to deal this. 

“Alright, alright! I’m Mary, okay? Mary Langdon.” She said, holding her hands up in surrender.

“We have English class together before lunch.” Victor added.

“I’m kind of an overachieving bookworm if you ask me.” said Mary matter-of-factly. “But only because my mother wants me to.”

“Look, none of us really know each other, okay?” Norman got to the point. “But we were all in the same place at the same time when Eggs found those coins.”

“Wait, hold on. Can I just chime in here? Are we like superheroes or something? Like Iron Man or Batman or Spiderman? Because I think I might’ve been bitten by a radioactive spider, but didn’t know about or felt the bite. But I think that we-”

“Eggs, please. You’re not a superhero, okay?” Victor said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“If we all really superheroes, we’re kind too young for that.” said Kubo. “It may sound amazing, but it’s all very dangerous. My parents would never understand.”

“Norman, do you really think this Rita stuff is real?” Coraline asked him.

“I’m not sure.” He shrugged. “But I do know that the answer to whatever is happening to us is right here.”

Everyone thought about this long and hard as they knew Norman had a good point. None of them really asked for any of this or wanted to become a warrior to begin with and yet, here it was.

“I think we have to come back.” Norman proceeded. “I’m not gonna force you all to come back here, too. But at 4:00 tomorrow, I’ll be here.”

Standing just right below the ceiling, Norman then leaped up high above the ground and shot right through the ceiling of water and disappeared to head back home, splashing some water on the rest.

“Yeah, I don’t know why I didn’t think about that in the first place.” Eggs babbled.


End file.
